Politicians and the groups of people who work with them, say that they are working for change and that if we elect their candidate the change will be done for us. In short, the promise is that the change will be done and the public life will be better. There is no doubt that we are going to have changes and the changes will happen not because the elected officials make the change, but that there will be differences regardless of the party or the candidate. More people are registered to vote and there is an increase in young people registering to vote and working for the candidates, all of which speaks of a coming change.

The need for changes in public affairs is accepted by the majority of voters, and there is an indication that the turnout for the fall election will be up. If the changes that we need can come to pass there will need to be a willingness from all of us to pay the price of those changes. The costs must not be left to the persons who follow us, we can expect the changes to be costly. What that means is that casting a vote that elects a change agent candidate is only the first step, the second step keeping the expectations we have. .

What I really need to say is that changes in our government and government officials begin with changes in our ways and thoughts. We need to take charge of more of our lives and not expect either laws or doles to let us go on living the way we want to. This is a free country, but that freedom has its price.

A change that we need to live by is giving up the way we talk about people we don't like, looking for the good in others rather than the bad they do, stop calling people names, like stupid, or silly. When those kinds of words are said about a person to whom those words are said, they either deny the word or aren't present to hear it. Freedom does not include the right to judge others. The present word battle between the Democratic candidates is a good example of this habit.

Another thing that needs changing is the way we assume that by waging war in an effort to make that nation a democracy is sadly misplaced. The problem is we, ourselves, a nation claiming to be a democracy. become a nation that assumes the burden of ruling the whole world. Quite frankly, we are deeply enough in debt already to the whole world that we are adding to that burden by not practicing what we preach in our own land.

The immediate of burden we put onto our children and the poverty stricken by reducing the money we allot to their care and education all the while protecting the wealthy by reducing their taxes is another essential change.. The only bright lights I can see on this matter is that some wealthy folks are doing acts of charity, and in a kind of left handed way the game shows on television who give away money to game winners.

We live in a 21st Century world, a world that is ripe with an opportunity to be a changed world. We possess the wisdom and the ability to grasp that opportunity, but have to be decisive about it and resolve to do our part to make a new, kinder, generous planet and population.